2021 layoffs MEGA THREAD (Part 9, by popular demand)

[msommers]

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I thought you had to marry your way to 7.2

You have to marry your way to Aspen. 7.2 is then a given.

[Buster]

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I thought you had to marry your way to 7.2

you guys are savage.

It makes me blush.

[killramos]

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you guys are savage.

It makes me blush.

Hey everyone has a price

[schurchill39]

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Sounds like my exact experience. Is it because so many workers in the past left as soon as things were booming again?

Must be. There is definitely a mentality of "there is no point investing any time in them because they will just leave when the oil patch picks up". From my personal experience these type of people haven't been paying attention to the last 5+ years of budget slashing, mass layoffs, and project cancellations. As I'm sure you learned, it makes it pretty tough to even get in front of someone to have the conversation about wanting to transition to something else for some stability and a better work/life balance once your resume is tarnished. Extraslow has been pretty open with his story about unemployment and he's one of the lucky ones who were able to pick up a professional position again albeit back in the patch.

I know there are a few guys on beyond that are pretty anti people-who-work-in-oil-and-gas that have been vocal about the subject before. I'm sure they will chime in soon enough to let us know why we all suck and why they would never look at anyone with O&G experience.

[mr2mike]

I can tell you that I know a few guys that had same experiences as ExtraSlow. Resume would be tossed even for a general labour job.
Careerism at its finest.

[killramos]

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Must be. There is definitely a mentality of "there is no point investing any time in them because they will just leave when the oil patch picks up". From my personal experience these type of people haven't been paying attention to the last 5+ years of budget slashing, mass layoffs, and project cancellations. As I'm sure you learned, it makes it pretty tough to even get in front of someone to have the conversation about wanting to transition to something else for some stability and a better work/life balance once your resume is tarnished. Extraslow has been pretty open with his story about unemployment and he's one of the lucky ones who were able to pick up a professional position again albeit back in the patch.

I know there are a few guys on beyond that are pretty anti people-who-work-in-oil-and-gas that have been vocal about the subject before. I'm sure they will chime in soon enough to let us know why we all suck and why they would never look at anyone with O&G experience.

MAYBE YA SHOOD AV SAVED UP DRING THE GUD TIMES, YOU RIG PIGS DESRVE TO B UNEMPLOYED

Something like that?

[ThePenIsMightier]

Like as if all other hired employees are #Lifers and never leave. It's such flawed thinking, which is rampant among modern "HR professionals".

[Cagare]

I don't really think it's careerism. I think there are three parts to it

The first being that if the job comes back up again in O&G that the person will leave immediately from the job they have. Primarily because the pay will be higher in that industry. I think this is becoming even less true today.

The second being that they believe that person's pay expectations may be higher than anyone else's because of the industry they came from. Not that this reason is true for everyone but it assumed by some employers I bet.

Final reason is that depending on what they are applying for it may be an uphill battle in training. I know a lot of O&G engineers that have applied to work for infrastructure consultants. It's a very challenging transition and there has to be a real desire on both sides of that to want to make it work. It hasn't gotten there yet but I am betting it could. The reverse situation is just as true. I have seen some infrastructure consultants move into O&G but more on the operational side for site operations than anything else.

[rage2]

We still give them a chance to go through the interview process. Generalizing here, ex O&G'ers in the tech sector always asked for much higher salaries, even though they imply they're doing us a favour and taking a pay cut. Not a problem if they're worthy of it, but the majority of them pigeon holed themselves into 2 generations old technologies and would involve a steep learning curve to catch up. We've had people that's come back to us in the recruitment process, where we rolled out an offer the first time around when they were fresh grads with a lot of potential in problem solving, but we lost out to higher paying O&G roles. Subsequent interviews showed that the problem solving skills have disappeared, guessing from working years maintaining things vs leveraging creative solutions to problems. The latter was really the most common reason for ex O&G candidates exiting our recruitment pipeline.

We still give everyone a chance because there are really solid people out there even after a 10 year O&G tech stint. But it's rare for sure.

[killramos]

To be fair, in a lot of ways, I get it.

For me quite a lot of the “value” in my experience is in technical details and concepts that have no transmissibility outside of even just a fraction of the oil and gas sector. Tbh while we lump it all together as “oil and gas” I wouldn’t even be able to honestly say I have the qualifications to do my role at Suncor in oil sands because it’s a completely different technical skill set. I have this discussion with my wife all the time where I have to point out that a fair part of what I do is completely useless outside of my field.

I have at least admitted this to myself, identified it, and have spent the better part of the last 4 years trying to claw my way out of that pigeon hole with at least a bit of success. Bonus points being that I like what I am doing way more these days.

It’s tough to admit to yourself that large portions of the skills you have developed are frankly pretty invaluable to most potential employers. Maybe this doesn’t apply to everyone but it sure as heck applies to me, and I think Rage touched on that to a degree wrt to tech positions.

[Tik-Tok]

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you guys are savage.

It makes me blush.

Are you looking for a husband? I'm not gay, but for 7.2, I can be bi... as long as there's no pre-nup.

[rage2]

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It’s tough to admit to yourself that large portions of the skills you have developed are frankly pretty invaluable to most potential employers. Maybe this doesn’t apply to everyone but it sure as heck applies to me, and I think Rage touched on that to a degree wrt to tech positions.

To touch on that a little more, great tech people always like to learn outside of their work, building random shit or interesting projects unrelated to their field of work. Take me for example, learning about hosting basically a cloud service and focusing on performance/user experience by building beyond which really helped when our company moved to a cloud platform. We see that in developers too, just random side projects, mobile apps, doing shit just to learn new things.

We find that a lot less in ex O&G folks. Maybe they're getting paid so much during their stint they find better hobbies or something haha.

[killramos]

The one pet peeve that really gets me, is statements like “you are an engineer, so just go engineer something”. Unfortunately the ship largely sails once you have established a “practice” area.

Sure I have an mechanical engineering degree, that doesn’t mean I have any business designing pretty well anything.

[Cagare]

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The one pet peeve that really gets me, is statements like “you are an engineer, so just go engineer something”. Unfortunately the ship largely sails once you have established a “practice” area.

Sure I have an mechanical engineering degree, that doesn’t mean I have any business designing pretty well anything.

Extremely true. Also, with respect to staying out of pigeon holes. So true in any industry, but I find it particularly true in larger companies. You get so specialized and good at something that is specific to that industry that you become known for that and when that skill is no longer needed it's very hard to pivot.

You kind of have to think about yourself similar to a business. Always thinking about if the skills/offerings you have right now going to be wanted in the future and find ways to develop new skills/services that will be wanted in the future. I have changed companies/jobs once in my career because I knew I was not developing and was becoming less marketable in my skills.

[dirtsniffer]

this local stigma against O&G must be long standing, because city engineers make more than me lol. Sometimes I regret stepping away from that gravy train.

[ExtraSlow]

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To touch on that a little more, great tech people always like to learn outside of their work, building random shit or interesting projects unrelated to their field of work. Take me for example, learning about hosting basically a cloud service and focusing on performance/user experience by building beyond which really helped when our company moved to a cloud platform. We see that in developers too, just random side projects, mobile apps, doing shit just to learn new things.

We find that a lot less in ex O&G folks. Maybe they're getting paid so much during their stint they find better hobbies or something haha.

Agree that seems to be a big thing in the tech industry. Have been told by several recruiters that your resume is your history of passion projects, preferably on github or elsewhere, more than anything else. Pretty foreign concept to someone who couldn't possibly do career related work as a hobby. Really doesn't compute.

I'm the least passionate person out there, and have basically zero hobbies, which truly did work against me in my job search.

[killramos]

Everyone knows the only hobby that matters is if you play goal

[ExtraSlow]

I should stop making this thread about me and my sob stories. I may try.

[killramos]

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I should stop making this thread about me and my sob stories. I may try.

Disagree, I think your posts are far more helpful than most

Lots of lurkers who are interested in what you have to say I imagine.

[ExtraSlow]

are you coming on to me?